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Asus Zenfone 5Z review: Killing the ‘flagship killer’

We reviewed the new-launched Asus Zenfone 5Z and here's what we found out.

| Gadgets Now | Updated: Jul 12, 2018, 12:40PM IST

Critic Rating3/5

User Rating3.7/5

Top Features

* Good spec-is-to-price balance* Easy to get used to, snappier UI*Impressive AI integration

Remember the old adage many of us read in school: Try, try until you succeed. It looks like Asus has taken a leaf out of the good ol’ Moral Science textbook and implemented it in its strategy for smartphones. A few years ago, the Taiwanese tech giant had introduced Zenfone 3 Deluxe at Rs 60,000. While the smartphone topped in specs, its price came as a deal breaker for many.

Now, with its latest smartphone, the Zenfone 5Z, the company seems to have learnt the lesson. Priced at Rs 29,999, the Zenfone 5Z seems to have got it all and looks a solid contender to dethrone the OnePlus 6. It is the cheapest smartphone in the market to boast the all-powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor.

You will get the Zenfone 5Z in three variants costing Rs 29,999, Rs 32,999 and Rs 36,999. The review unit we received was the Midnight Blue version of the 6GB+128GB model (Rs 32,999). Though Asus’ Make in India initiative may have given it the flexibility of offering such an aggressive price tag for a ‘flagship’, does this also mean that the device is a good proposition for those hunting for an affordable flagship device? We spent over a week with the newly-launched device and here is our Asus Zenfone 5Z review.

Design

Asus plays on the same grounds as the Zenfone 4 series in terms of design but with subtle changes that shouldn’t be bothering you at all. The smartphone has more rounded corners and a compact design instead of a squarish one seen in Zenfone 3 and previous models. The design not just makes the entire package compact but adds to the grip as well.

If you are one of those who is using the Zenfone 3 or older smartphones, design elements like broader rims running at the edges, smoother overall finish and of course the near bezel-less screen will be among the prominent changes.

The in-hand feel of the Zenfone 5Z is better than most of the company's previous smartphones. Since the entire front-side is a 2.5D screen and the back panel has a glass coating, the combination could make the smartphone bit slippery in some cases. The metal sides and the glass back panel also make it light-weight. Be prepared to get smudges and fingerprints because of the presence of glass at the back.

At the back, you get a vertical dual rear camera setup with a dual-tone LED flash right below it and a fingerprint sensor at the centre of the upper half. It is placed in a comfortable spot where the finger falls naturally. It can be different for those with smaller or bigger-sized hands.

One downside here is that you still get a camera bump at the back. We are not a fan of this in particular. Being a flagship, it retains a 3.5mm headphone jack, something from which other flagship smartphones are slowly parting ways. Also, the handset is not water-resistant so one needs to be careful while using it.

Display

The Zenfone 5Z’s display is not the best but it sure is a sizable upgrade over its predecessor. Unfortunately there’s no AMOLED screen onboard but what you do get is a Super IPS+ display. Not having an AMOLED screen is surely the sad part given that the screen is not as bright or not as battery saving. However, this is also one of the reasons why the Zenfone 5Z is priced low. So no complaints there. Nonetheless, the contrast and blacks are handled well, resulting in an overall good viewing experience. The viewing angles are not AMOLED-level though.

The 6.2-inch canvas with Corning Gorilla Glass protection and a notch is nothing new in the market. The only other smartphone using this screen spec other than Zenfone 5Z in the particular price range is the OnePlus 6. In Zenfone 5Z you get FullHD+ (1080x2246 pixels) resolution, which we think is good enough for viewing content in small screen. With 19:9 aspect ratio, Asus touts a 90% screen to body ratio in its smartphone.

As for the notch, you get the option to hide it from the Settings app and if you love it, you get the option to optimise all the apps for a full-screen display - another feature that is present in the notched handsets. Also noticeable is that the notch is wider than what you see in OnePlus 6, hiding a couple of more notification icons. Asus’ hack to this is that you can tap on the notification icons on the left side of the notch for a little drop down showing all the other hidden icons. Pulling it down will open the usual tray.

The display ‘smarts’ come in the form of lock screen gestures, auto colour temperature and smart screen on features. The auto colour temperature recognises the environment and changes the colours slightly, giving you the best view for your eyes. It, however, means that you won’t be seeing true colours.

Besides the ability to hide the navigation buttons, the smartphone also gives you the option to play with the colour temperature of the screen manually using the Asus Splendid feature. You can also set the Bluelight filter from the same section. In addition, the Smart Screen extends the screen on time while you’re viewing at it, holding the device upright. This will definitely impact the battery as it constantly uses the proximity and ambient light sensors.

Performance

Like we mentioned above, Asus Zenfone 5Z is the cheapest smartphone in India that packs the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor. This is the same processor that you get in Samsung Galaxy S9 (US version), Huawei P20 Pro and OnePlus 6. So it will be hard for anyone to find any kind of lag or flaws in the performance department. In our daily usage, all the apps and games worked just as advertised. The animations are smooth and the graphics rendering in heavy games like PubG won’t give you any reason to complain. A huge credit here not only goes to the Adreno 630 GPU but also the 6GB LPDDR4X RAM. The 8GB RAM model should perform in nearly the same way.

Being a 2018 flagship device, it is no surprise that the smartphone runs on latest Android OS -- 8.1 Oreo. Besides all the features that the OS version brings, what comes as a pleasant surprise is the refined ZenUI. The ZenUI 5 is not just less cluttered than what it was a couple of years ago but is also easier to get used to. We found the design refresh better than some other UIs carried by other OEMs and with an uncanny resemblance to iOS. It is of course not as clean and simple as stock Android. Asus doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to rolling out monthly updates. We are yet to see how the company plans to tackle that. Especially since the rival OnePlus is known to bring the newest features onboard faster.

Asus, at the time of the launch, touted the integration of artificial intelligence in the smartphone. The firm said that the Zenfone 5Z makes use of Qualcomm 685 DSP and it's tweaked AI engine to learn the pattern of apps that you use and make operations simpler and quicker. One of the AI-based features you’ll see is the new dynamic app drawer (or Suggested APPs) when you access the app list by swiping up from the home screen. Suggested APPs is said to learn the time you spend on each of the apps and the ones that you use the most, and shows them in the drawer, letting you access them easily. The feature is optional though and is switched on by default.

One of the features that is being boasted is OptiFlex 3.0 that claims to launch the app faster. This along with AI Boost and ample RAM is claimed to make the device snappier. Another area where you usually don’t see a role of AI is the caller ringtone. Zenfone 5Z’s AI ringtone adjusts the volume based on the ambient noise.

Some other nifty features come in the form of fingerprint swipe gesture to access the notification panel, double tap to turn on the display, flip down to mute and others found as a part of the ZenMotion feature under settings. Asus has also joined the live emoji bandwagon after Apple and Samsung by something called as ZenMoji. This works in the same way as Animoji or ARemoji but needs to be refined a bit more. It could be difficult to find it at first go as it is not there in the camera app. The easiest way is to activate the Zenimoji app shortcut from the Settings app. You can show these Zenimojis during live video calls as well.

Face Unlock on Zenfone 5Z is largely smooth and fast. However, in dim lighting conditions it can be a hit or miss case. We found the OnePlus 6 giving slightly better success rate in this one. Nonetheless, you get a fingerprint sensor as well so this shouldn’t be a deal breaker for you. There's dual-SIM with VoLTE support and active standby ability in both the SIMs. One of the SIM card slots also doubles up as a microSD card slot, a feature missing in OnePlus 6.

A part of focus has also been given to the audio output of the smartphone. In a bid to make Zenfone 5Z a complete entertainment device, Asus has included two five-magnet stereo speakers that do make the audio louder. These work with dual NXP smart amplifiers that are said to deliver high-volume audio without damaging the speakers. What comes as an addition is that the smartphone also supports DTS Headphone X for 7.1-channel virtual surround-sound over headphones and Bluetooth 5.0 Apt:X technology.

In another AI-based feature, Asus claims that it has included this element in its gallery app as well. The role of AI here is that it detects faces in images automatically and can categorise them based on users' interests. We felt that it works in a similar way as Google Photos. Talking about the gallery, the Zenfone 5Z is said to boast a powerful camera. Here’s what it means for customers.

Camera

Like the Zenfone 4 and many other mid-range to premium smartphones, the Zenfone 5Z also has dual rear cameras that are placed vertically on the top-left corner inside a capsule-shaped bump. Below the cameras is the dual-tone LED flash. The primary camera consists of a 12MP dual-pixel image sensor powered by Sony IMX363, the same sensor that is used in Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S as well. It is comparatively new and is a good performer. The f/1.8 aperture is quick to capture images that are sharp and surprisingly have a more accurate colour reproduction than others coming in the same price range. But that’s not the case every time you click a photo.

A major change won’t be visible in daylight shots but will really make a difference when shooting in low light. We did witness noise bleeding in night shots as the darks were not entirely dark and will make the night sky look grey-ish. But the overall job of handling photos is impressive. This is possible because of the low aperture, 1/2.55" large sensor size and the 1.4um pixel size. These team up to deliver sharp shots in low light while maintaining the colours and delivering brighter images.

What you may find different is the inclusion of a 120-degree wide-angle lens in the secondary camera instead of a telephoto lens. The last flagship smartphone we saw sporting a dedicated wide-angle secondary camera is the LG V30.

Anyway, the second camera in the 5Z has an 8MP sensor wherein it clicks images in 4:3 aspect ratio. You can also go for a 6MP option with 16:9 aspect ratio and 5MP with 18:9 aspect ratio among others. On the other hand, Asus’ hack to telephoto shots is to use the portrait software to bring the subject in focus and the rest of the area as blurred.

Unfortunately, you can’t compare the portrait mode in the Zenfone 5Z with that of the Pixel 2 or the OnePlus 6. The details captured at the edges need to be worked out a bit more but most users might be satisfied with the results.

The Phase detection autofocus works well most of the times and tracks the subject with accuracy. You also have the option to shoot videos in 4K resolution and 60fps and slow-motion videos in 240fps (in HD and FHD), which is a bit disappointing to see as other flagships come with 480fps and 960fps slow-motion recording feature. This can be considered as one of the corners that the company had to cut to make the device more affordable. Also, we wish Asus kept all the video-based settings at one place instead of separating the Slow Motion video recording as a different mode and removing it from the settings section.

Selfie lovers get an 8MP camera that is placed alongside the speaker grille in the notch. Since its a selfie camera, it is ought to be a wide-angle one. The camera claims to have an 84-degree field of view, which should be good enough for group selfie shots. While daylight shots come out just as imagined - slightly soft along with smoother skin, the low light shots were just good enough but not the best. Given the processor and sensor capabilities of the handset, Asus can do better.

While the overall experience is positive for the cameras, what makes your task slightly better are all the AI-based features. One of the main areas where you will see the AI come into play is in the auto mode. The camera automatically detects the environment and the subject to determine which of the 16 modes should be applied at the given time. The modes include food, sky, green field, plant, ocean, sunset, snow, flower, stage, dog, cat, people, text, tripod, QR code and night view. You can however, turn off this feature. Some of the other features included are real-time AI Portrait and Beautification, which work well most of the times.

In addition to this you get the usual set of PixelMaster camera modes including filters, Pro mode, Super Resolution (48MP), GIF Animation and Time Lapse. These are there for the front-facing camera as well.

All-in-all, the camera will do most of the job for you. You get sharp images, best-suited mode for capturing images, decent night shots and not-so-bad portrait images. The wide-angle lens is definitely an addition to the mix.

Battery

Asus Zenfone 5Z boasts of a 3300mAh battery, which is the same as the OnePlus 6 but not as well performing. The average screen on time we received with the Zenfone 5Z came up to around 5 hours, which is not impressive according to today’s flagship smartphone standards but is not that bad either. With daily tasks such as streaming hours of music, playing PubG, surfing on social media apps will give you enough juice to run the handset more than half a day through before you reach for the charger.

As for the charging technique, the Zenfone 5Z supports fast charging tech with the company’s own ASUS BoostMaster technology. The tech, however, is not as fast as the Dash Charger but still gives you enough juice in less time to make the handset go for long.

But unlike others, you get several options to tweak the battery performance of the device. In addition to battery optimisation of apps, you get a dedicated section that determines apps that are draining the battery. Also present is the PowerMaster, from where you can get all the information on how long the smartphone will run, what apps can be prevented from auto-starting in the background and switching on the AI-based charging tech.

The AI Charging dynamically adjusts the charging rate based on your previous charging behaviour. Another one is ‘Scheduled charging’ that adjusts the charging rate between 10PM to 7AM during which time most of us plug in our smartphones and go off to bed. The AI-based charging is useful but you may have to wait or a couple of days for the device to recognise the pattern. So it is likely that most of the customers may end up using the scheduled charging mode. Both of these are claimed to keep the battery usage per time untouched. You can also switch both the modes off.

In case you want to stretch the battery life even more, you can select the battery modes including Performance, Normal, Power Saving, Super Saving and Customised, from the PowerMaster section.

So although the fast charging and battery performance on auto is something that is not the best in class, the level of customisation to take out as much battery life as possible from the smartphone is much more than any other handset.

Verdict

If you have been following the smartphone industry, by now it must be clear that bringing such a flagship smartphone that has top-end specifications, at a mid-range price tag takes a lot to pull off. Asus Zenfone 5Z is as good as its closest competitor OnePlus 6 when it comes to specifications. However, it still stays slightly behind in terms of battery life, fast charging tech and display. But at Rs 29,999, the Zenfone 5Z certainly offers one of the best specs-to-price balance till date, moving a step ahead of OnePlus.

Like we said earlier, Asus’ 'Make in India' plans seem to be slowly bearing fruits in the form of competitive price tags for its devices. This not just brings the brand back into the race but also makes it grab the pole position in the Rs 30,000-Rs 40,000 segment. At the given price, you get a smartphone that has a flagship processor, good cameras, above-average performance, a decent display and a package that is value for money. So, in all we can say: This actually kills the 'flagship killer'.